


We need to talk about Brian

by Oscarthegrouch



Category: Mindhunter (TV 2017)
Genre: Bill tries to win Nancy back, F/M, Family Issues, Family centered, Fix-It, Good Dad Bill Tench, Gregg isn't useless, Holden serves as a good counter example, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Nancy and Bill try to heal Brian, Psychologists & Psychiatrists, Wendy helps in some capacity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:29:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27622748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oscarthegrouch/pseuds/Oscarthegrouch
Summary: Nancy moved out. She needs time to herself, to see if she's better off alone or with Bill. Though they keep seeing each other at Brian's psychiatrist. Bill knows one thing: he doesn't want to lose his family. Nancy's the love of his life, he won't let everything crumble.
Relationships: Bill Tench/Nancy Tench
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	We need to talk about Brian

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: I do not know when and if I'll come back to this fic. I'm posting its first short chapter but there's no guarante there will ever be a continuation.  
> Disclaimer: please ignore everything they say in therapy I have no knowledge apart from the one granted by grand master internet.

The first thing that greets Bill in the morning isn't a tender kiss from his wife, or the soft hair of his son under his palm. It's a call from his soon to be ex-wife: ''Where were you last night, I called you twice.''

Bill sighs, staring at his coffee getting cold on his dinning table. ''I was at the Doctor's.'' there's a pause before she continues in a softer tone: ''Is everything okay?'' Bill leans against the wall to support his weight on the white surface. ''All good, what did you want to talk about?'', Bill hears her sniffle on the other side and he feels dread creeping across his skin. ''It's Brian Bill, I think he was really hurt.'' he understand it's a reference to his past. His heart seizes, though it shouldn't. Most kids up for adoption don't come from rainbow-cupcake families. And he'd be a darn fool to watch his son and assume he didn't have some sort of trauma. Though admitting it, hearing Nancy say isn't something he looks forward to. ''Ignorance is bliss'', Gregg would smartly say. The fool isn't always wrong.

''What happened?'' he asks because he needs specifics, and also because he knows that his threshold is higher than Nancy's, maybe it isn't that bad.

''Brian's new psychiatrist says that he has an attachment disorder. It can manifest in two ways, disinhibited or inhibited'' she hiccups. Bill's fairly sure they could have come up with that themselves. He doesn't tell Nancy though, she'd been trying hard to see their kid as normal. ''He has the disinhibited manifestation of the disorder...'' Bill waits for her to elaborate but she doesn't. He has to press her on. ''It means that he suffered from emotional neglect as a trauma. Doctor Manheim says it's to early to determine in which capacity but that it is very common. That most foster homes don't have the optimal staff numbers.'' She sniffs louder and Bill leaves the phone for a second to fetch his coffee. ''Can you repeat that please?'' he quietly asks once he's back on the phone. ''I said he has trust issues, that he said Brian was most probably emotionally numb and that he even might have empathy issues.'' _No shit_ , Bill mumbles to himself. 

He had seen all the signs, they had seen all the signs. It doesn't feel good hearing it said out loud; that his son has a disorder. That he needs treatment. He knew a psychiatrist was bound to bring headaches. ''You're not saying anything?'' Bill decides he's going to be positive about this. ''We already knew something was wrong with him Nance. Now that we have a better idea, maybe it'll be easier to make it better. Is there a treatment?'' Nancy's voice is shaky as she answers, Bill understands that she's too scared to allow hope. Their marriage had failed, their family had failed, she was used to the trend and didn't want to taste happiness again lest it give her ashes to eat later on. Poor Nancy hadn't had it easy. ''He says we can work on several things, mainly make him understand that we'll be a constant in his life, so that he isn't scared to get attached. He says it's all a defense mechanism, to not feel rejection or disappointment. He's also suggesting theater to develop empathy. Is that weird?''

Bill grunts. Theater is the last thing he would imagine for Brian, he lets her know how ridiculous this is: ''He doesn't even fucking talk or smile, how's he suppose to play anything? He'd be only good as a tree, I tell you that.''

''Bill!'' Nancy protests, ''how can you say that?''  _Because I'm right_ , he thinks very loudly but refrains. ''Well we can always try.'' 

Bill frowns, because he's no psychologist but if there's one thing he knows, it's that piling up failures and feelings of inadequacy is a pinch of the ingredients to make an anti-social delinquent.

''We need to try, what else can we do?'' she insists. Bill almost hears the ''we can't exactly give him back'' in her voice. He feels guilty for it, and she probably does too but it's good to admit it. He's also glad he's not alone with all these negative feelings. It's just so hard to love a kid who won't reciprocate, or even emote. If they had adopted a cat they'd probably have a more loving relationship with it than they did with Brian.

***

''An impending divorce certainly isn't helping things. It's going to distress him further.'' Bill sees Nancy's hands wrench her handkerchief as Doctor Manheim says so, he grinds his teeth but lets him finish. ''It's certainly not responsible.'' 

_Okay that's enough_ , he thinks. ''I think we're going to mind our own business.'' he enunciates loudly. Nancy usually hates it when he uses his intimidating voice but he can see that she's relieved the subject is over. She's currently looking down in what appears to be shame. 

He can't begin to think how hard it must be on her. He had barely touched two words about it to Wendy, but when she had pointed out that Nancy was the woman, the mother, and in parallel with his research at the Bureau, he can see how strongly the societal blame weighs on her.

He pats her shoulder awkwardly, before shifting more comfortably on his chair. He reflexively reaches out for his pant pocket to retrieve his cigarettes, before remembering he can't in here. Since he shut the Doctor up and Nancy's too shy right now, it's up to him to get the Doctor talking again. ''What if we focused on what we could do with certainty Doc?''

The Doctor lifts his gaze up to Bill, he scrunches his nose, seemingly in disgust with his authoritative appearance. Bill couldn't care less, he's just hell of glad he isn't a small guy that can be intimidated by strangers who tell him how to live his life. Somewhere in the far corner of his mind he knows he's being a bit of a prick but he shushes the thought.

Nancy goes to throw her handkerchief away, before regaining her seat. ''I talk to him Doctor, I tell him when he's doing something good, and I tried abandoning negation. He was tapping incessantly on the window panel the other day and I said 'I need you to be quiet instead of: stop tapping' '' she stops her rambling to fiddle with the cross on her neck, ''I try to tell him where we're going, and why I'm enforcing the boundaries I make, but he never answers. He never does.'' her voice goes higher, likes she's about to cry and Bill grimaces at her obvious pain.

The Doctor seems more tired than anything else, he adjusts his glasses before addressing her. ''How long have you been doing it?''

Nancy lifts her head quickly: ''Ever since you've told me to be more positive around him, I...'' she stops as the Doctor makes a placating sound.

''Two weeks Mrs. Tench, we talked about changing your attitude two weeks ago.'' Nancy hangs her head low. ''These things take time. Real time. I'm very glad to hear you've been following my instructions. I hope Mr. Tench is following up on them too.'' he says that glancing warily at Bill who's positively offended to be accused of being insensitive. ''It will pay back, eventually. But the blockage that was created in Brian's formative years requires hard work. From everybody. The most important thing is that you don't give up. Don't give up on your child Mrs. Tench, I know how tempting it is, to fall into despair, but you're going to fight this.''

Bill's dejected at how bright her eyes become at the Doctor's little pep talk. He never managed to make her look like that when talking about Brian. She cracks a smile and nods vigorously, which only makes him more jealous. He sheepishly checks the Doctor's wedding finger. It's nude to his dismay. Here it dawns upon him, layed bare in a pedopsychiatrist”s office: their relationship problems had circeled around trust. Had Nancy too, been scared of abandonement after he came home late one too many times? Got delayed plane rides and too tired of a brain to offer her proper conversation? Was she doing what Brian had done, running away from her emotions before they got to big, was it why she seemed so much more at ease with their divorce, after 20 years of marriage, than he?

''Mr. Tench?'' the Doctor glares. ''Would you mind paying attention?''

Bill is too worried about Nancy disappointment to care about the patronizing tone. He scrapes through the worries of his mind and comes back with a half backed idea: ''Just wondering Doctor, no matter what happens between Nance' and me, it's not just about showing Brian he can trust us, but showing him that we trust each other to take care of him.'' He couldn't exactly say ''count on me little buddy'', and then suffer his wife's disapproving glare right in front of him. Which she had done almost every time she had dropped him. No he hadn't had a play date arranged, but this was his son, and if Brian were to be normal he couldn't take him to the fair, than duck feeding every time he saw him.

''That's a fair point actually. Everything you construct can be deconstructed. Brian shouldn't witness any discordance between the two of you. Healthy disagreements is not a problem but the signals he receives must be linear.''

Bill sat a bit more comfortably, savoring his small victory. Interviews with Holden definitely served him to sense the weak link in dynamics between when interviewing .

The Doctor adjusted his glasses on top of his nose, ''It's imperative you communicate and agree on how you educate him, the behaviors you will reward and the ones you won't except.''

The couple glanced at each other. They would have a lot to talk about then. Between a too laid back dad and a hovering mom.

Bill thought the session went well though. They had guide lines, strings of hopes to work from. No weird terminology, no meds to take, all natural human solving stuff.

He pushed away any thoughts revolving around his work, what would have happened to these sickos if their parents had paid a bit more attention? Instead he convinces himself that this is different, that Brian's just scared. That the incident at the church hadn't phased him because the kid hadn't understood it was happening for real.

He glances at his wife, maybe ex-wife, and gets a sick giddiness at the idea of sitting down with her and talking. He knows she's scared, she needs reassurance and if he had ignored her all these months now he's available, awake and she'd always rely on him for his strength. She was going to rely on him now too. No matter where there relationship was at, and he liked the prospect.


End file.
